Patrick Abercrombie

Patrick Abercrombie (6 June 1879-23 March 1957) was a British town planner who played a major role in the expansion of English cities during the 1930s and 1940s and the reconstruction of London following the end of World War II.

Biography
Patrick Abercrombie was born in Ashton upon Mersey, Cheshire, England on 6 June 1879. His early architectural experience was in Liverpool, where he began to formulate principles of town planning. He studied regional planning in the 1920s and argued for the creation of an undeveloped "Green Belt" around London. As a member of the 1937 Barlow Commission on the distribution of industrial population, he supported countermeasures against industrial and urban concentration, and The Blitz and the need for reconstruction during World War II gave him the planning opportunity. From 1941 to 1946, he prepared detailed plans fro London, Plymouth, Hull, the West Midlands, and for the first New Towns; Plymouth came to be known for its orbital roads and the separation of traffic from shopping pedestrians. He was later condemned by the conservation movement for the demolition his plans involved, but he left behind a considerable impact on Britain's townscapes.